Posts Tagged ‘Anthropologie’

I’ve been jamming on all things ‘granny square’. I stumbled upon this link and yes, it’s in CHINESE and RUSSIAN, but is very photo heavy. Could I do this? Just looking at pictures? It was doubtful, but I thought I’d give it a try. I loved the coat featured in that link, with the main body color being red, as it reminded me of those little Russian matryoshka dolls. But I thought that a more sedate forest green might work, too.

The first thing I did was to tackle the big square that made up the back.

Big granny square.

Then, I started working up some grannies to make up the body of the coat.

Grannies, bordered in main color – ‘forest green’

Next was the sleeve. I did a main granny square for the upper arm, then rows of granny for the lower arms. For the shoulder easement, I added a few rows on top, making them narrower as they reached where I’d hoped the shoulder seam would go.

I made two of these – one for each sleeve.

And after sewing it all together like some kind of yarnish Frankenstein monster, and then crocheting several rows along the bottom, and then from front edge, around the neckline to the other front edge, this is what I ended up with!

I have literally hundreds of tails of loose yarn to weave in, but it’s done, I did it, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Somehow, I thought that the forest green would make this a little less ‘out there’. Hubby, I promise I won’t wear it when I’m out in public with you!

Like this:

Whew, I haven’t written in ages – we’ve moved house to lovely New England, and between selling our home and building the new one, my creative energy was siphoned off into more practical matters.

But now! I’ve got a few moments to myself, and channelling my dearly departed grandmother, I’ve picked up my crochet hook and started up some new projects. And I’m just mad about this one!

Emme’s blanket

Never attempting a granny square afghan before, I thought I’d give this one a whirl, using two different sized squares. I made 15 panels consisting of one 6-round square and five 3-round squares, in shades of purple – my granddaughter’s favorite color! – and a few complimentary colors. I sewed them together with a whip stitch, and then put a simple border around it.

I just love these colors.

Despite several attempts, I wasn’t able to capture in a photograph the vintage, ‘muddy’ mood of the colors of yarn that I chose for this project. In person, it has a very boho-chic vibe to it, and I hope my granddaughter loves it. It looks like something you’d pick up at Anthropologie, and I would be happy to have it draped across the leather chair in my family room.

As this is a gift for a little girl, I was tempted to use more child-friendly purples, but then, I was afraid she might grow weary of the brighter, nursery-ish shades as she got older. After all, I still have an afghan my great-grandmother made (although I ruined it by washing it in the regular laundry – I was young and foolish and it didn’t occur to me that yarn might’ve been actually made of real wool!), and it is my hope that this is something she holds onto fondly into her later years.

Detail of panels

If I had it to go over again – and I will, for my two other granddaughters – I would use a yarn color that more closely blended in with the squares for the whip stitching. For the border, I did one row of single crochet in beige all the way around, and then a row of double crochet followed by a row of single crochet, both in purple. Here is a close-up of one of the panels.